The Chaos Code by Justin Richards Page B

the files were only two days old he saw – Harper had given them everything he had, obviously keeping them right up to date on the hunt.
    The afternoon was turning to evening by the time he finished. Matt ejected the final disc from the DVD drive and replaced it in its case. He found Venture and Robin in Venture’s study. Venture was at his desk, reading an old leather-bound book. Several more volumes were open in front of him, and in one hand he held a fountain-pen that seemed to be scratching notes on a pad without any attention from Venture as he read.
    Robin was lying on her stomach on the floor. Her legs were bent up at the knees, her chin supported in her hands as she stared down at a large piece of parchment. Papers and books and maps and scrolls were spread out round her. She didn’t seem to be taking notes.
    â€˜Ah, Matt,’ Venture said without looking up from his book. ‘Are you all finished?’
    â€˜Yeah. It’s all on the computer now. In a folder called
St John
. You should be able to see it from here.’
    Venture glanced at the screen on his desk. He laid down his pen for long enough to move the mouse and type quickly into the keyboard. ‘Thank you.’
    â€˜Anything else I can do?’ Matt wondered.
    â€˜Thank you, no.’
    Matt nodded, disappointed. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, unsure what to do. Probably he should go.
    â€˜Dad,’ Robin said. It sounded like a mild rebuke.
    â€˜That is, yes,’ Venture corrected himself. ‘I’m sorry, I’m used to having Robin and your aunt helping me out.I know you want to help too. There
is
something you can do.’
    â€˜Anything.’
    â€˜There’s something I need. I wonder if you could fetch it for me?’
    â€˜Dad.’ This time she sounded disappointed. Which was pretty much how Matt felt about being sent to run errands.
    Venture’s directions sounded straightforward enough. But once Matt reached the top of the stairs and turned left, he began to wonder if he would ever find what he was looking for. A small stone statue, about a foot high, Venture had told him. It was a carving, apparently, of Sir Robert de Lisle rescued from the Priory of Beauval in France after the buildings were destroyed by the invading Germans in 1939. Venture seemed to recall there was an inscription, or part of an inscription on the base.
    It seemed unlikely to Matt that it would help. But he was keen to show he could be of use. Get a simple task like this wrong and Venture would never trust him with something that did actually matter. He wondered how Venture came to have the statue, but the question fled from his mind as he opened the door to the room where the statue was supposed to be, and found himself looking into a linen cupboard.
    There was no space for a statue, even a small one, amongst the folded sheets and blankets. Matt closed thedoor again and went back to the stairs. Fourth along on the right, Venture had said. He counted again, and it brought him back to the linen cupboard. He must have meant fourth room, not fourth door, Matt decided, and went to the next door along. Unless some of the rooms had more than one door, in which case …
    He opened the door anyway. There should be a cupboard to the left of the window. It was difficult to tell if there was or not. The curtains were drawn, and the room was a mass of shadows. Matt felt for the light switch, and as he pressed it found himself staring into a room full of crates and packing cases. There were shelves and cupboards, tables and filing cabinets amongst the crates. Books were piled precariously in islands amongst the other odds and ends. There was what looked like a gargoyle staring out from a large chunk of weathered stone leaning against one wall.
    And there was indeed a cupboard to the left of the window. It was actually quite a way to the left of the window, but it must be the one Venture had meant. If this was